July 8, 2025

The Download: hunting an asteroid, and unlocking the human mind

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Inside the most dangerous asteroid hunt ever If you were told that the odds of something were 3.1%, it might not seem like much. But for the people charged with protecting our planet,…

Technology

There is a new most expensive drug in the world. Price tag: $4.25 million

March 20, 2024
There is a new most expensive drug ever—a gene therapy that costs as much as a Brooklyn brownstone or a Miami mansion, and more than the average person will earn in a lifetime. Lenmeldy is a gene treatment for metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) and was approved in the U.S. on Monday. Its maker, Orchard Therapeutics, said…

Astera Labs’ IPO pops 54%, showing that investor demand for tech with an AI-twist is high

March 20, 2024

Astera Labs started its life as a public company trading at $52.56 per share, up 46% when the bell rang. The company priced its IPO last night at $36 per share, above its raised price range. Astera’s debut marks the first material technology offering this year that TechCrunch is tracking. Reddit, the well-known social forum […]

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Building a more reliable supply chain

March 20, 2024
In 2021, when a massive container ship became wedged in the Suez Canal, you could almost hear the collective sigh of frustration around the globe. It was a here-we-go-again moment in a year full of supply chain hiccups. Every minute the ship remained stuck represented about $6.7 million in paralyzed global trade. The 12 months…

New York City’s plan to stop e-bike battery fires

March 20, 2024
Walk just a few blocks in New York City and you’ll likely spot an electric bike zipping by. The vehicles have become increasingly popular in recent years, especially among delivery drivers, tens of thousands of whom weave through New York streets. But the e-bike influx has caused a wave of fires sparked by their batteries,…

The Download: AI drugs, and how AI is improving soccer tactics

March 20, 2024
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. A wave of drugs dreamed up by AI is on its way Alex Zhavoronkov has been messing around with artificial intelligence for more than a decade. In 2016, the programmer and physicist was…

A wave of drugs dreamed up by AI is on its way

March 20, 2024
Alex Zhavoronkov has been messing around with artificial intelligence for more than a decade. In 2016, the programmer and physicist was using AI to rank people by looks and sort through pictures of cats. Now he says his company, Insilico Medicine, has created the first “true AI drug” that’s advanced to a test of whether…

Chinese platforms are cracking down on influencers selling AI lessons

March 20, 2024
This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. Over the last year, a few Chinese influencers have made millions of dollars peddling short video lessons on AI, profiting off people’s fears about the as-yet-unclear impact of the new technology on…

The Carevoice raises $10M Series B, bucking the funding slowdown in health tech

March 20, 2024

The field of insurance technology has had a rough time. About 7 years ago, early insurtech companies promised to disrupt the insurance industry with new tech, but today, most of those companies have either been acquired or are floundering in the public markets. Fortunately, insurtech has found a new wave to ride in the past […]

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NVIDIA’s annual AI conference impact

March 19, 2024
In the fast-paced world of technology and finance, few events stir as much anticipation and speculation as the annual conference of a tech giant. This week, the spotlight is on…